Advanced Community Activation Training-Intensive Virtual Training for Immunization Professionals 

Starting Monday, April 10

Have you taken an introductory or intermediate community activation course, like Storytelling for Change or 
Boosting Leadership to Activate Communities? 
Are you ready to further develop your skills to take action and inspire others in the fight for health equity? 

⏩ If so, then Advanced Community Activation Training - an intensive, virtual LIVE course designed to develop and deepen leadership skills for advocacy and organizing - may be the right course for you.

✅ Apply today to learn how to develop a community activation strategy with a special focus on reaching zero-dose children and increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake.

What will I learn?
The 14-week online training, offered by the Boost Community and People Power Health, based on community organizing methods developed by Harvard University professor Marshall Ganz, is designed for national and sub-national immunization professionals and focuses on building, developing, and deepening leadership skills for advocacy and organizing. 

Moreover, it involves introducing the five key leadership practices that comprise the craft of community organizing:

• The public narrative is how we communicate our values through stories, bringing alive the motivation that is a necessary pre-condition for changing the world. Participants will learn to tell the story of why they are called to leadership (“story of self”), the values of the community within which they are embedded that calls us as a collective to leadership (“story of us”), and the challenges to those values that demand present action (“story of now”). For those who participated in the Storytelling for Change course, this will be an opportunity to practice and develop your training and coaching abilities.
• Relationship building for developing power is how we turn individual narratives into the bonds needed to articulate and act on collective interests. Participants will learn to develop public relationships based on shared values, specific common interests, and the mobilization of diverse skills and resources to achieve those interests.
• Structuring leadership teams and embedding those leadership teams into an interdependent campaign is how we coordinate work across time and space so that the whole can be more than the sum of the parts. Participants will learn the core conditions of effective teams and launch their leadership teams with purpose, roles, and norms.
• Strategizing is how we turn the resources we have into the power we need to achieve the change that we want. Participants will learn that strategy is a verb and will begin the strategizing process for how they will achieve the campaign goals for their respective teams.
• Action that is shared and measurable is how we mobilize and deploy our resources in order to develop more resources, motivation, and power as we carry out our campaign. Participants will learn the art of making clear and specific organizing ‘asks’ and how they can design actions that enhance, rather than deplete, volunteer motivation.

This training will allow participants to develop a specific community activation strategy and plan to advance and promote more equitable vaccination initiatives within their communities, with a special focus on reaching zero-dose children and increasing HPV vaccine uptake. It will lead participants through a self-reflective process that will require active participation.

How will I learn?
The training will employ several techniques to create a robust learning environment:

• Experiential learning: participants will apply the skills from the program directly in their work on the ground, organizing people in their community. Each segment of the training will be designed to enable participants to acquire new leadership skills needed for their work.
• Bi-weekly live group sessions: each module of the program includes a live, 90-minute session where key concepts will be taught and reviewed and a skill practice session will be held to enable participants to practice skills in a safe training environment.
• Bi-weekly live section meetings: participants will attend bi-weekly section meetings with a smaller group of coaches and peers. The sections are designed for fellows to coach one another and model the development of an online learning community.
• Final capstone webinars: at the end of the training, four teams (with five participants each) will be responsible for delivering a webinar about reaching zero-dose children or increasing HPV vaccine uptake. Teams will be responsible for recruiting the primary audience of national and sub-national immunization professions from within and beyond the Boost Community. This exercise will allow participants to practice training skills as well as online facilitation and engagement.

Am I Eligible?
Here are some of the things we look for when selecting participants for this program:

• Experience with advocacy and/or community building in the immunization sector
• Are currently in a position that supports immunization efforts at the national or sub-national level
• Working on or supporting campaigns aimed to reach zero-dose children or increase HPV vaccine uptake
• Have a strong learning mindset and an eagerness to jump into the conversation
• Have or can acquire a strong internet connection and feel comfortable with virtual learning
• Have sign-off from their employer/supervisor and can commit to ~2-3 hours a week to join virtual meetings and complete assignments
• Desire opportunities to connect, learn and work alongside peers from different backgrounds and across the immunization sector

How Do I Apply?

Applications are available today! Applications are due by Friday, March 31, if you’d like to join us for this intensive course.

NOTE: Space is extremely limited (to 25 participants), so apply soon!

  LEARN MORE!   

  APPLY TODAY!